Award to Honor Women in Conservation Biology in Africa

The Young Women Conservation Biologist group of the Africa Section of SCB is pleased to announce the call for nominations for the 2013 Young Women in Conservation Biology Award (YWCB).

African women are underrepresented in the field of conservation science on the African continent. To help bridge this gap, the Africa Section of SCB created the Young Women Conservation Biologists group in 2005 and established the YWCB award to recognize the achievements of young women in Africa who advance the discipline of conservation biology on the continent.

The deadline to submit nominations and supporting materials for the 2013 YWCB Award is 30 April 2013. Click here to download the 2013 YWCB Nomination Form.

The YWCB Award for professional African women is a non-monetary incentive award aimed at recognizing and applauding the contributions of early to mid-career African professional women in conservation. The nominees should have demonstrated, during their career so far in Africa:

Evidence of leadership, creativity, self-motivation and enthusiasm in the execution of conservation work;

Evidence of service (educational, managerial, research etc.) to conservation biology; and

Ability to work with others across gender, social class and ethnicity to achieve concrete conservation outcomes.

The 2013 award will be presented at SCB's 26th International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB) in Baltimore, Maryland, USA to be held 21-25 July 2013, alongside SCB's Global Distinguished Service Award, LaRoe and Early Career Conservationist Awards. SCB and the Africa Section are trying to secure financial support for the recipient to travel from their workplace to attend ICCB, receive the award in person, and ideally to present a paper on the recognized work.

SCOPE OF AWARD

The scope of the award is open to any area of conservation science directed towards practical conservation action. A nominator of high professional standing should submit the application on behalf of an exceptional nominee. This should be supported by at least two letters of recommendation by additional referees. Under unusual circumstances only, if a highly accomplished candidate works in such isolation that a nominator is not available, the Awards Panel may consider self-nominations.

The application should clearly explain the nominee’s role within in the conservation community and evidence of her professional accomplishments, including her ability to work with diverse interests to achieve balanced and pragmatic solutions to conservation challenges. The Awards Panel will not normally make awards to African women working outside the continent, nor to early career students with no outstanding practical accomplishments.

NOMINATIONS

Nominations on behalf of potential awardees are invited from the conservation community (e.g., scientists, managers, activists). The nominee must, however, work explicitly in the field of conservation biology, rather than advocacy or education without explicit conservation biology content.

Nominations will be peer-reviewed by an Awards Panel of SCB conservation scientists and managers. To submit a nomination, please download nomination form and e-mail the completed form to the chair of the Awards Panel, Dr. Phoebe Barnard (a 2002 winner of SCB's Distinguished Service Award). No incomplete nominations will be processed.